ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell women's soccer team opens Ivy League play Saturday as the Big Red travels to New York to face Columbia.

Game Information

SITE: Rocco B. Commisso Soccer Stadium – New York, N.Y. (artificial surface)
TIME: Saturday, Sept. 24 – 6 p.m.
RECORDS: Cornell (1-4-3, 0-0 Ivy League), Columbia (4-2-1, 0-0 Ivy League)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 20-15-0
BROADCAST: ESPN+
STATS: GoColumbiaLions.com

Ivy League Openers

• Cornell is opening Ivy League play against Columbia for the 14th consecutive season and the 20th time over the last 22 seasons of competition. It is Cornell's 25th time opening Ivy League play against the Lions. Princeton is second with nine.
 
• The Big Red defeated the Lions, 1-0, at Berman Field last year on Sept. 25, snapping Cornell's 21-game Ivy League winless streak (0-19-2). It was also the first time Cornell won its Ivy League opener since 2015.
 
• With a victory Saturday, Cornell will have won its Ivy League-opening match in consecutive seasons for the first time since beating Columbia in 2004 (2-1) and 2005 (1-0).
 
• Since 1982, with the exclusion of the 2020 season not being played, Cornell is 19-19-2 in its first contest against an Ancient Eight opponent. Despite owning a .500 win percentage in those matches, Cornell is just 3-12-1 in its last 16 Ivy League openers. All three of the victories in that span have come at home.
 
• The last time the Big Red won a conference-opening match away from Ithaca was Sept. 14, 2002, a 2-1 win over Columbia.

Last Time Out

• Senior Nicole Shulman and sophomore Erica Fox combined for Cornell's first clean sheet of the season as the Big Red women's soccer team played to a scoreless draw with St. John's at Berman Field last Saturday.
 
• Shulman and Fox each made one save over 45 minutes in goal for the Big Red. Offensively, Aidan Julia Reineman recorded two of Cornell's three shots on goal.

Nobody Wins

• Three of Cornell's last four matches have resulted in draws, including its last two matches. It is the first time the Big Red have played to consecutive draws since Sept. 24 and Sept. 29, 2017, against Fairleigh Dickinson and Penn, respectively.
 
• Should the Big Red and Lions play to a draw on Saturday, it would be Cornell's first time playing three consecutive draws since 2002 and 2003. Cornell drew with Providence and St. John's in the ECAC Tournament ­before opening 2003 with a draw against Stony Brook. At the ECAC Tournament, Cornell beat Providence but lost to St. John's on penalty kicks.

Scouting the Lions

• Columbia enters Saturday's contest and Ivy League play with a 4-2-1 record. The Lions have won three of its last four matches and are unbeaten at Rocco B. Commisso Soccer Stadium this season (2-0-1), defeating Stony Brook and Fordham, while drawing with St. John's.
 
• Ania Prussak leads the team in assists (4) and points (8) this season. Maia Tabion has scored a Columbia-best three goals, while adding an assist for seven points. Ally Clark and Shira Cohen have two goals and two assists apiece.
 
• The Lions have used three different goalkeepers this season, despite Paige Nurkin starting in all seven contests. Nurkin has a 3-2-0 record with a 1.67 goals-against average and a .625 save percentage. Elizabeth Matei is the other Lion goalkeeper of record, going 1-0-1 with a 1.33 goals-against average and a .714 save percentage.

Series vs. Columbia

• Saturday's match will be the 36th all-time meeting between the Big Red and Lions, a series in which Cornell has a 20-15 advantage. Despite leading the all-time series, Columbia has dominated lately, winning 12 of the last 15 matches.
 
• Following last year's victory over Columbia at Berman Field, Cornell is looking to beat the Lions in consecutive years for the first time since posting four years in a row between 2002 and 2005. The Big Red enter Saturday's match on a seven-game losing streak to Columbia on its home turf, with Cornell's last win coming in a 2-1 victory on Sept. 25, 2004.

Looking Ahead

• Cornell returns to Berman Field for its first home Ivy League match of the season next Saturday, Oct. 1, when the Big Red hosts Penn on Reunion Weekend. First touch is slated for 1 p.m., with game action broadcast on ESPN+.